Slayers of Rayearth
by Shar-dono
Summary: Lina Inverse is the next Magic Knight of Rayearth. Slapstick, cliche, corn, cheese and ooc. Dated 1997.
1. Stranger in a Strange Land

Slayers of Rayearth: Stranger in a Stranger Land

© 1997 songshadow@hotmail.com

**Labels:** Slapstick. Cliche. Kind of OOC. CRINGE.  
Disclaimers: I do not own Slayers nor Magic Knights Rayearth. If I could I'd claim no relation whatsoever to the kind of writer I used to be. The only reason this fic survived was cos it made my Amika (jainasw@hotmail.com) laugh when we were children and I wrote it. 

_*As I read back I am extremely extremely ashamed of myself now. This was a long time ago......*_  
Slayers vs Rayearth

**Slayers of Rayearth: Stranger in a Stranger Land**

* * *

Lina stumbled for the fifteenth time in five minutes. Partially because the moutainside was so very rocky, but more because of the tears in her eyes.

"So this is how Amelia feels," She grinned ruefully out loud, more out of her need to fill the aching emptyness inside her.

"Zel would be very much at home among all these rocks!" A weak smile came to her pale, cracking lips. _How much Longer?_

"And Gourry'd be..." Her throat closed painfully. _Oh God, Gourry... _ Tears sprang afresh, threatening to spill over. The thought of him hurts. But she wouldn't want it any other way.

She had lost him once, and swore never to lose him again. But she did. And to a teleportation spell! It was the single most idiotic thing in her life. That she, Lina Inverse, beautiful genius redhead sorceress was unable to keep the single, most important oath in her life. Defeated, by an **ametuer** teleportation spell!

She tripped, and couldn't be bothered to get up. _What was the point?_ He was gone. There was nothing left. Nothing else to live for. Salty tears flooded forth in fustration. He could be anywhere. Anywhere at all. Even dead.

"Would have been better if he'd never tried to 'rescue' me in the first place!" She screamed to the two lonely moons overhead. _Wouldn't it?_ She regretted saying it immediately. The hills threw her desperate words back at her relentlessly.

Each echo was a piece of their past. That 'rescue' from the bandits she was robbing, running through town streets escaping angry innkeepers and chiefs, fighting each other over food, angling for his sword, and him in a dress! Guarding each other's backs, every mutual pact, every co-ordinated defence. Zel's comment rang from so long ago that she had not realized she had forgotten.

"You two must be a real team," Zel had said. She had never gave it much thought before and never realized how true it was.

She had always dreamed secretly of someone meant especially for her, never realizing he was there by her side the whole time. And when she finally did... ...

She couldn't go on. It hurt too much. _Oh Gourry,_ She wept silently. _Amelia, Zel, where are you?_

* * *

Light. Pure, bright blinding light... This isn't supposed to happen!_ She screamed. "Gourry!"_

**Help me! Please!** A voice sounded. Her head hurt, as if torn apart from the inside... ... **You're our only hope!**

The returned awarness hit her senses in full force. Her head reeled terribly, as if... no, she WAS falling out of the sky. And drained, too. _Damnit._ She thought numbly. She couldn't see Gourry, Zel or Amelia anywhere. She was alone and she knew it. There really isn't anything left to fight for when you're alone... ...

* * *

"Stay with us, girl, stay with us!"

There was something very familiar about that. Something that made her want to fight out of the soothing darkness... ...

"Gourry?"

"Now who do ya suppose's that?" Lina opened her eyes. Three figures came into focus, none of them familiar.

"Reckon yer gonna stay with us fer a while?" She moistened her lips and nodded.

"Are you sure? You were really far gone." Another voice trilled.

"'twas hell bringing yer back, that's fer sure!"

"I... Thanks." She managed softly. _But... how?_ What had prompted her to come back? Then, she knew.

"Stay with us!" They had said. Gourry had called her back once, with those same words. "Stay with me, Lina! Stay with me!" The memory hurt. And she, sadonicly, did not want to leave it alone.

"You're not from around here, aren't you?" The girl was pretty in a quiet sort of way and seemed barely past thirteen.

"Don't think so." She attacked the glass of water with an urgency that surprised even herself.

"Can I have hair like yours, ma'am?" A child by her bed asked.

"Come now, 'Manda, I'm sure she can't make you any different than what you are." Her sister scolded gently and started to hustle the child out.

"Actually, I can." The girl turned and stared at her guest in awe. Lina just smiled her I've-got-a-secret smile.

"Wow! Really, really, ma'am?" Lina nodded, warmed by the familiar eagerness of the child. "Only not now, 'Manda. I'm pretty much drained."

"Heavens!" The girl breathed, then caught a grip on herself. "Right. I'm Kelly, my ma's the village healer." Lina took her hand.

"Lina Inverse, wandering Sorceress." She got out of bed and realised to her mortification that Kelly was taller than her by half a head. "Where am I?"

* * *

_**So, this is what the old fool managed to call.** "Ye-ess, my liege." The Darkaqua Mirror spawned ripples across its watery surface. **You know what to do, don't you, kitten.** "Of courrrse, my Lorrrd."_

* * *

"Right," Lina studied the map she got from the villagers. "Follow the mountain range north to a series of stone pilliars aranged in the five points of a star and turn Eastwards." She folded the map and stuffed it into her backpack. "That's simple enough, not as if I'm Gourry or something," She smiled to herself. If what the villagers said was true, then she should find Gourry and the rest at the center of this Cephiro place. Lina figured that if she was lucky, she might even meet them on the way and save the trouble of going to the 'Palace-Temple', where all Otherworlders presumely head for. Things were looking up. She might as well take this as a nice little lone vacation after all. 


	2. The Day of Nightmares

Slayers of Rayearth: The Day of Nightmares

© 1997 songshadow@hotmail.com

_*As I read back I am extremely extremely ashamed of myself now. This was a long time ago......*_  
Sorceress vs. Guru...

**Slayers of Rayearth: The Day of Nightmares**

* * *

Lina was bored. And so was the creator of this strange alternate world she's stuck in. There was nothing for miles around but rocks, not very interesting ones, either. A deep growl rumbled across the range. Our heroine brightened. Time for lunch!

The fare was simple, but no one was complaining. It's fairly well known that Lina has a palette of a racoon; anything as long as it's edible. Noon was warmer than she was used to, so the shade a newly blown cliff provided proved a great relief. Not for long, though.

"How long do you intend to dwindle! We haven't got all the time in the world, you know!" Lina looked up at the stunted figure against the light of Cephiro's blazing twin suns.

"Zel?!" The unmistakable features of a chimera peered out of a tan hood as he dropped beside her, leaning against a weird staff. Somehow, the mage managed to look down on her from his ridiculous height of half her own. There was a childish cast to the distinctive face that was last seen belonging to a serious entity at least twice his current height.

"Who the hell's that? Never mind him, what about you? I can't believe the Princess Sent for a wet kid like you! What's your name, little girl?" Lina was baffled, not to mention stung by his references to herself.

"Now you look here, fella, _I'm_ the Genius _Bishojo_ Sorceress Lina Inverse and watch who you're calling 'little', _kid_!" She was rewarded with a peck on the head from the staff.

"A little more respect, _girl_! I am Clef the Royal Mage, over three hundred years old your senior and far more advanced in the practise of magic!"

Of course this behaviour was wildly NOT Zelgadis, but, Lina decided, since she wasn't home anyway, it can't be Zel at all. That sorted out, the runt boiled her blood. A devious glint appeared in her eyes. "Wanna bet?"

As usual, people who'd challenged the Bandit-bane learn never to do it again. Clef learnt how it felt to be robbed.

There wasn't really anything of value on the elaborately dressed novice, Lina noted with a frown. Most of the loot turned out to be fakes. Except the staff, which didn't seem to be of much use, either. Sure, it looks powerfully mystical, but was really some kind of storage space or something. So far, what it yielded included a gigantic flying fish, three tacky suits of body armour and a tawny griffin; not to mention the handful of loose change, dust bunnies and little black book.

* * *

A lone figure crawled out of the sunset, his once fancy robes in a terrible state of disrepair. Pulling himself along with a makeshift cane twice his dwarfish size, Clef aknowledged for the first time just how much he needed his sprites. They would have gotten him here in much less time than the hours he took.

_Well,_ He reasoned. At least he made it on his own two feet. _Now to get to Presia and find that redheaded brat._ There were certain items in that staff that he just **had** to get back.

* * *

It was more of a holographic slate than a book and browsing through the rows of alien inscriptions and holograms of strange looking creatures, all tall, curvy females; Lina realised the book for its true value. It wasn't the secret name list of accomplished sorceresses in the district, but something better for her purposes: the little address book where every desperate bachelor keeps the contact numbers of his potential dates. And judging from its condition, Clef was ve-ry desperate indeed.

But blackmail could wait. She was getting hungry.

* * *

It was high noon by the time Cephiro's Royal Mage caught up with his conqueror's tracks. Of course by then Lina was long gone, leaving a day-old cold camp where Clef found it at the edge of the Forest of Silence.

The first thing that caught his eye was a gigantic set of fish-bones which left him in a state of shock. He'd never known a single person who've managed to polish off a creatures of such great proportions in two meals, much less a tiny girl like that redhead!

It took a while for the implications to set in, but when it finally did, the chimera dwarf screamed and fainted. 


	3. Lina the Messiah!

Slayers of Rayearth: Lina the Messiah?!

© 1997 songshadow@hotmail.com

_*As I read back I am extremely extremely ashamed of myself now. This was a long time ago......*_  
Lina vs Mokona

**Slayers of Rayearth: Lina the Messiah?!**

* * *

It was in the air. She could just taste it, a foul, clammy feel near the back of her throat. Things were happening too fast these days and what she really needed was a nice long nap till all this was over. Presia sighed heavily and slid underwater. There was no way she could do it, that much she knew. In every generation, everyone who knew the Ballad was essential to its purpose. It will never end, this Holy War, so perhaps it made no difference whether she stayed submerged in her bath or go out to meet the Prophesied Ones.

She was tired, weary of leading her life in accordance with the age old tradition for the sole purpose of guiding an other-worlder on the path of death and destruction. The fall of one she dearly loved and would gladly surrender her life for. _There **must** be another way!_ But there was none. The Elders foresaw no other solution, Clef had said. _Cowards, the lot! All of them! They would rather a young innocent girl stain her hands with the blood of another than allow their own to even try!_

Even so, she could do nothing. The Great Mechanics have been set in motion, and when it has, her place was among the living. To support the Messiahs with all the powers at her call. To fulfill their destiny. At all costs.

Presia went to meet her uninvited guest.

* * *

Kidnapped from her home, seperated from Gourry and the rest, then insulted by a runt, challenged by a weird cat like women who run at her first Fireball and finally locked up in a cage for no apparent reason, Lina was not paticularly thrilled at the moment.

It took a while to get her temper down and dispose of the lump of blackened metal that used to be the cage in question, which was really meant to keep certain white entities from messing up her now cindered library; by which time Lina was properly confused.

"So you're saying that I'm some kind of Messiah here to rescue your world from some Great Disaster or another?"

"That's right," Presia confirmed. "But first you've got to find the Legendary Mineral so that I, the greatest 'Maker' in this world, can create your 'key' to your 'Mashin'. And while you're doing that, I can allow you free run of my armoury... ..."

"There isn't any money in this, is there?"

"Excuse me?" Presia frowned. The Legends never mentioned this!

"Since I'm obviously being sent on a hero's quest, you don't expect me to do it for free, do you?"

"Well," The Maker started, suddenly uncomfortable. "I think you get to go home after rescuing the Princess. There's no way to be sure, but Clef's going to do it, I think... ..."

"You mean you dump me, a Genius Sorecess, in the middle of a world saturated with magic, throw me a quest with no gold in it and send me packing? Not a chance!" Presia paled. It was just what her loyalty had feared, that the Messiah would refuse and demand to be returned ho... ...

"You can at least spare me a month or so to explore the magics! Your occupation, for one, how in the world do you 'create' a weapon here? I haven't seen any forges or anything... ...!"

* * *

_That free run in the armoury was a mistake,_ Presia realised ruefully. The girl had gotten off with virtually every piece of valuable looking item and her best Staff to boot, the one she had intended to give Clef for Christmas, come Winter.

_Oh well, she is the Messiah, after all,_ Thought Presia and hoped frantically that Lina knew what she was doing. The last one didn't, according to her predessor. There was a blast of flames in the distance as the Inverse girl tested the staff on Mokona, the white floppy eared thing the cage was supposed to have trapped.

_There goes my last link with Clef,_ She sighed, and realised she forgot to ask her about the Royal Mage. If she was the other-worlder, her path would have crossed with him. It's been ages since she last saw him and with all the political messes going on, they'd probably never meet again... ...

A rustle in the nearby bushes broke off her thoughts. Presia's amber eyes widened as a small blue chimera in dirty rags stumbled through and whispered a soft, almost indistinguishable syllable.

"Clef?"

The pebbles along his delicate jawline were dulled and chipped, his dark eyes feverishly bright. The stick he leaned against was not the storage staff she had loaned him six weeks ago and something about the set of his brows told her that all was not well.

"I have bad news and worse news, Presia." He rasped grimly. "We're doomed." 


	4. Get Along

Slayers of Rayearth: Get Along

© 1997 songshadow@hotmail.com

_*As I read back I am extremely extremely ashamed of myself now. This was a long time ago......*_  
Gourry vs Ferio

**Slayers of Rayearth: Get Along**

* * *

The Forest of Silence was, well, silent. Almost as if the entire other-world held its breath, waiting for something to happen. Something bad. Every last creature stiffened, sensing the tension. Everyone except one and her strange guide trampling through the lush undergrowth.

Presia paled. "You'd better come in."

Quite some distance away, out of earshot, a redhead was shouting at a white floppy eared creature. "I thought you knew where we were going! We've been walking 'round in circles!" The creature hopped around, apparently not understanding the fustration in his companion's voice. "Listen up, you hyperactive little blob!" The redhead had him by the ears and bore her burning gaze into his. "Pull that act off again and you're lunch!"

That certainly caught its attention. A serious of panicky gestures assured her that he was very much frightened. _Not a bad thing,_ the sorceress smiled slightly. Something growled. And it wasn't her.

She turned slowly and her smile widened. This was no young lady locked in some nice, comfortable tower till Cephiro's Princess decided to kidnap her for the part of Messiah in their Legend. She had seen and fought many more times than the dozen monsters rambling towards her. True, then she had help, but now she had more power. The staff Presia the Maker had loaned her was certainly a master piece, much more substential than the more oranate one she had scavaged from Clef after winning a duel. It was time to put it through a pratical test.

The creatures were a good challenge, slightly stronger than she expected, but not indestructable. Already three had succombed to her four enhanced fireballs. Most of her other spells have also gotten stronger. More of the plant-like things were coming. Perhaps if she try the Dragon Slave? _Would it work in a different world?_ She wondered. _Only one way to find out!_ She gathered her powers.

_"Darker than Twilight,  
Redder than Blood that flows,  
Lost in the Mists of Time  
In thy great Name  
I pledge myself to Darkness  
By the Power that you and I possess  
Destroy the fools that dare defy us!  
**Dragon Slave!!!"**_

A moment of silence. Nothing happened. Then, the next wave attacked. _Oh well._ She shrugged and went back to the elemental magics. A Fireball here, a couple of Flare Arrows there, some ice in between to cool down the atmosphere and most of this lot were slaughtered too. One survivor caught her off guard, but not long enough. Strange to say, the Flare Arrow only burnt the corpse split neatly in half down the center.

That only confirmed the suspicion that she was being followed. Checking that there were no more giant carnivorous plants around, she peered up into the trees. "All right now, show yourself!"

* * *

The person that dropped in front of her was not someone she expected to see. She was about to fling herself into his arms when she noticed that the sword by his side was not the Sword of Light and remembered how Clef had looked exactly like a kid-version of Zel. Instead, she waited.

"I'm Ferio," He started with a frown. "What in the world are you doing here! It's not safe anymore!"

"Lina Inverse," She replied coolly, still a little disappointed at how things turned out. "And I might ask you the same!" A retort rose and was caught at the tip of Ferio's tongue. He turned away, fuming silently while Lina watched the sunlight play across his long blonde hair and wondered how two people from two different worlds can look so similar.

"So, erm, what brings you here?" The voice was certainly similar enough.

"I'm looking for the Legendary Spring," She replied, turning her attentions to the conversation. "For the Legendary Mineral." His eyes grew hostile and Lina belatedly remembered Presia telling her of Zagato, the one who holds the Princess prisoner and enemy to all. Perhaps Ferio was one of his.

"No one but an other-worlder can attempt it, you should know that." The tone was a cold one she had never heard Gourry use on her before. Something in his eyes made all the pieces fall in place.

"Then what are _you_ doing here, then?" She asked slyly. He swallowed and shifted his feet. "Looking for the Mineral, too, I imagine." He nodded and looked away again. "Um, I'm the Messiah."

"You?!" She blushed, wishing he'd stop staring. She hasn't exactly come to terms with that herself. "But... that means you're going to get the key... ..."

"I guess. Now, look, I need to get going if I want to find my friends and study this place... ..."

"I'll go with you." He declared. She stopped dead in her tracks. It was exactly the same as with back home, when she'd first met Gourry. Tears sprang unbidden to her eyes. She had thought she'd came to terms with that ages ago when she'd first landed in some out of way village on this Cephiro. _No,_ She pushed the memory away. There's no profit in moping around like that. The sooner she get on the sooner she finishes and find the others. _Yes,_ And there was the magic of this land to study, too! _No time for sentiments!_

"All right then, come along, Gou... Ferio!" 


	5. Travels in Silence

Slayers of Rayearth: Travels In Silence

© 1997 songshadow@hotmail.com

_*As I read back I am extremely extremely ashamed of myself now. This was a long time ago......*_  
Feeding Lina corn.

**Slayers of Rayearth: Travels In Silence**

* * *

_"Oh pleas-se, my Lorrrd," The cat-like figure cowered before her expressionless leader. "Give me one morre chance..." She dared look up and edge closer then, stroking the edge of his cloak. "You know I'll neverrr betrrray you..." She purred. Two cold words, he had for her, sweeping grandly away._

**"Next time."**

The other-worlder was stronger than she expected. Alcyone suffered greatly as a result, yet inside she was rejoicing for this tiny piece of luck. She would get to see Zagato sooner than she expected. And he would heal her. She loved the soft whisper of his cloak when he moves and the feathery brush of his magic against her healing skin. Oh, here was a **man__**, one that she loves. He was God.

* * *

"Well? Now what?!" Lina glowered down at the floppy-eared _thing_ hopping about in a hyper manner.

"Maybe it's hungry..." Her companion suggested. "Or maybe it wasn't leading the way after all." He groaned at the thought. That would have meant three wasted days in the Forest of Silence.

"Pu! Pu! Pu!" Two days ago he would have been alarmed at the desperate cries of the creature. Now he sat down on a sun-warmed boulder and unwrapped his lunch. It was a good thing Lina and him had seperate provisions, he decided quietly, watching her yell at the upside down creature.

From what he had gathered, its name was Mokona and was supposed to lead them, well okay, _Lina_, since he was just tagging along, to the Other Side of Silence, where the Pool of the Legends is said to be found. What it HAD been doing, however, was acting like a school kid on his (or her) first excursion and leading them around in irregular circles.

He considered informing his red-headed companion of the latter, then wisely thought against it. She might level the Forest in outrage. Granted that _would_ make their quest a lot easier, it would also involve a lot of angry officials and uncomfortable questions; not to mention the residential creatures who'll want to know what happened after they tear you apart... ... definately _NOT_ a very desirable turn of events.

"Well?" He stood up and dusted the last crumbs off his breeches. "It's not talking?" Lina was about to snap at him for stating the obvious when she realised he didn't _quite_ mean it that way.

"Yeah." She sighed a little resignedly. "Seen any signs of life yet?"

She studied his grim profile as she approached the large smoothened rock. If Ferio would just let down his hair and look less grim, he could almost pass for Gourry. Almost.

"No. This is very wrong."

She was still rather uncomfortable with Gourry's look-alike. It was nice to have someone around to talk to, but she can't help being frightened by the thought of having an intelligent conversation on the Laws of Physics with Gourry. And hard as she tries, she still had trouble remembering that she was stuck in an alternate world with some strange Swordsman who was **NOT** Gourry Gabriev.

"Those big boys we've been playing with are personifications of negetive emotive energies, right?" She appeared somewhat more cheerful. "Which means we'll be seeing less of them. Now stop scowling!" She yelled, dropping to the ground in a roll as the air thickened and buzzed with Ferio's hesitation.

Something large charged through the undergrowth screaming for all its worth. Lina pressed down on her ears, against the sonic wailing. The creature dashed around firing lightning bolts at random before Lina burnt it to a crisp.

"Alright, Ferio," She went over and prodded the charcoaled remains. "Why in the world were you panicking?"

"It wasn't me!" He protested, fighting to keep the half-formed Hesitation from manifesting.

"Then who?!" She demanded and stopped. They turned simutaneously to Mokona, suspended over an open fire. "I thought it didn't _have_ emotions." She whispered with narrowed eyes.

"So did I... ..." He answered. Very carefully they studied the off-white bunny-eared blob with reserved apprehension. _Rumble rumble rumble..._

"Do you think... ..." _Rumble rumble rumble_

"Maybe we should just roast him here and now." Lina thought out loud. _**Rumble rumble rumble**_

"Lina," Ferio sighed patiently. "Can't you get your stomache to _stop_ rumbling? It's getting on my nerves."

"That, er, wasn't me..." **_RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE_** The pair jumped apart, Lina readying a handy fireball, Ferio his huge sword in hand, waiting to strike. Fireballs for the Panics, sliced Hesitation, diced Impatience, frozen Anger, after a while, these things turned routine.

* * *

_The constant _drip-drip_ of the outer chambers was soft and distant. The dark haired Princess sat in a clear bubble, looking ever so downcast. She brightened at the echoing footsteps gradually covering the delicate water music._

**"Princess."** He kneeled before her. She ran to him, or tried to, at least. The man sighed. Going "Splat" in a bubble you know was there wasn't very elegent behaviour for any lady, let alone the all important Princess of Cephiro.

"To-chan," She beamed happily, though it was hard to see her smile while she rubbed her aching nose. "It's so good to see you!"

He flinched again at the affectionate name. **"Princess, please, call me Zagato."** She didn't appear to have noticed.

"Really, To-kun, if you'll just let me have a go at those rebel traitors... they need a good lesson taught to them!" Zagato winced and tried not to think of what might happen if he'd let the Princess Emeraulde do just that. The poor boys will be to busy laughing their heads off to resist capture of any kind.

**"It would not be required, Highness,"** He answered quickly. **"My people have handled the situation well enough, thus far."** The princess drooped like a broken lily. "Oh." She said softly. "Okay." **"Please, do not be despaired, Princess."** He bowed again. **"It is for your own safety."**

"And ours." He added to himself, sweeping grandly out of the room. Princess Emeraulde is safest crestfallen. The people of Cefiro loved their Princess. She was the creator and sustainer of their world, the adorable child, for she never grows, and had the brightest, sweetest smile in the entire land. Of course, none of them has ever met her in person, not even Clef and Presia, her personnal friends. It wouldn't be proper.

They'd realise their child-like Goddess for the klutz she really was. Zagato stood under a curtain of water and looked up at the crystaline structures lacing through the rock above him. **Why me?**

* * *

"Why me?!" Lina speared another chunk of meat from the make-shift dish. "That irritating catwoman could at LEAST clear up her own emotions before leaving!" She chewed furociously and whined at the same time, something which Ferio found greatly fascinating. "Don't they teach them apprentices any manners any more?!"

Secretly Ferio was thinking that Lina shouldn't complain so much. The cat-like follower of the traitor Zagato _was_ the one keeping Lina fed, after all. Turning up every once in a while with stronger emotions than before. It wasn't much of a trouble getting rid of her, and in the Forest of Silence, the strength of the emotion determines the solidity of the corresponding monster.

"It's not fair," She went on about the Sorcerer's Code of Conduct. Ferio scraped the bottom of his wooden bowl with a bit of travel bread. Disbelief had a tangy sort of flavour. He hoped that Zagato doesn't get rid of her any time soon. 


	6. Your Own Worst Fear

Slayers of Rayearth: Your Own Worst Fear

© 1997 songshadow@hotmail.com

_*As I read back I am extremely extremely ashamed of myself now. This was a long time ago......*_  
Lina vs Hikaru.

**Slayers of Rayearth: Your Own Worst Fear**

* * *

Ferio whistled a low note through his teeth. "So, Miss Messiah, we're finally here." Lina surveyed the open glade.

"I'm not impressed." She remarked flatly at the landscape. A small circle of green turft similair to that of the rest of the Forest with a cup-like stone pedestal in the center and a rock to the side was all there was to see. "Soo..." She turned to Ferio and Mokona. "Where's the water?"

Ferio looked at her. "How do you propose to be the Saviour if you don't even know these things?!"

"Hey, don't yell at ME! It's not as if I got dumped in with a guide book or something!!!"

* * *

Legues away, near the village that Lina first encountered, Kelly the Healer's daughter shook out the bedclothes of their spare bed. Something small, brown and rumpled dropped out.

She picked it up. It was inscribed with strange symbols and burnt around the edges. It must've met with a drenching too, judging by the traces of running ink. Hand-written, but of no value down in their little village and therefore nigh useless. She threw it into the smoking fireplace without a second thought.

* * *

_"I am sorrrry, millorrd," Alcyone groveled, "I will destrroy her next time..."_

**"Rest peacefully, Alcyone."** Her face lit up. It had been a long while since he last called her name. And a rest? Oh yes, he must surely love her back... She limped closer and leaned her head on his broad shoulders.

"But I will get herr next time, I swearr..." Her face paled. A brief moment, hardly time enough for her expression to change, and it was over.

**"There will be no next time."** He turned his back on the disintergrating woman, footsteps echoed into a distance as a fine grey dust danced in the passing of his heavy cloak.

* * *

Lina looked down at the rippling Pool. A mere line over the pedestral, it was perfectly round and dark and glossy from the top, and a far cry from its side view. _Almost like a mirror... ..._ A mirror of the soul. 

According to Ferio's Legend, the Pool can reflect people's inner-most fears and desires. She must best these things in order to obtain the Mineral and surface.

"So, how do I beat it?" She had asked. "How would I know?" He retorted. "It's **your** worst fear!"

Fear and Desire... One was a word she hardly knew, the other her bossom friend. _My greatest fear..._ Lina shuddered at the memory. Her older sister. She wasn't sure if she could beat her. _Desire..._ Such a sweet word. Power, status, riches untold... they would all be illusions. _Heck,_ She was facing them down so she could get back to them! She dived. _Problems? Nosiree!_

There was the chilly wet sensation of water, but Lina's senses knew different. _A dimensional rip?!_ She fell, not the slow sinking in liquid, but a dead drop. Darkness engulfed her, then spit her out. She landed with a "thump" and an "ouch" on a glassy ebony surface stretching endlessly into, surprise, more darkness. She picked herself up and straightened her clothes. "Alright, Pool," She challenged grandly. "Do your worst!"

A piece of shadow detached itself from the far edge. The air crackled with tension across the distance. Goosebumps shot up her arms as she drew her sword. The world darkened to a dark maroon. The deepest shade of heart's blood. She could just make out it's shape. Tall, broad shouldered, well built and carrying a... the Sword of Light??!!

Her heart sank, taking her grin down with it. Her stomach churned. So familiar... so painfully familiar... the rest of him came into light. Him, for it wasn't her sister after all. Long hair the colour of her favourite gold, the friendly lips curved in a dangerous smile that she had only seen once or twice and never for her, a fierce, glad light glinted in his eyes, wild and blood thirsty. Her voice caught in her throat, closed tight.

"_Gourry?_" She managed. His hands closed over the hilt and drew the Sword. The blade of Light grew, broader, longer, stronger than it ever was in his hands. "Hello, Lina."

"Oh Gods," She breathed in horror. "No..."

* * *

Ferio dozed on the grassy cliff over the Legendary Pool, chewing a long blade of grass, hands linked behind his head.

"Hey," He opened an eye and looked at Mokona admiring a wild flower. "You think she's gonna be alright?" Mokona bounced around a bit and looked at another flower. Ferio rolled his eyes. "Oh never mind."

* * *

She ducked and blocked his blows, unable to attack. He was faster, stronger, more skilled in sword and dead serious. There was no time for her to launch any magical attacks, even if she could steel herself to do it. Blood soaked through her breeches, shirt and gloves and trickled sluggishly elsewhere. Dark maroon, bright red and dirty rust where the wounds had clotted. She was running tired. He seemed as fresh as when they'd started.

"Gourry! Gourry, please, remember!" Their blades caught in a dead lock. "All the times we had together, Gourry," She begged. "You and me, Amelia and Zel? All the great times, Gourry, please!" Her face stung where tears fell. She could not atack. She _CANNOT!_

"You promised! You promised..." Her throat closed again. She could not go on. He MUST remember! Oh, he must... ...

"Remember what, Lina?" He asked coolly. It could have been a nice sunny stroll in the park, by his tone. He smiled. The kind of smile a crocodile gives its prey before dragging it underwater to drown. And sliced through her sword like knife through butter.

She backed and stumbled, his sword point at her throat in a fraction of a nanosecond. _I must've gotten soft,_ She thought with a sad smile. Her throat was dry and raw. Her eyes blurred by blood mingled with tears. She could see herself in the ebony floor, a wreck.

_Oh Gourry..._ She tried to comfort herself with the thought that she was dying under his sword and not without a fight. It was enough. _Yeah, right._ There were things to be said, things she has never told him out right, things that were important. The man she faced was not the Gourry she knew. The one whom she loves and loves her back. _Not the Gourry... ..._

_"Please, think!"_ A voice intruded in on her thoughts. The image of a vaguely familiar girl wavered behind Gourry, but it was too dark to see. _"Would your loved one turn on you as such?"_ She sounded desperate, pleading. _"Would they want you to suffer?"_ The voice was familiar too. Lina knew she heard it somewhere before... ... Her fall? Yes, but there was more... ... _"Would he?"_

_Not the Gourry I know... ..._ "Of course!" She rasped. _It's all an illusion! A fake!_ Her eyes burned a new flame. _Well, in that case... ..._

"Flare Arrow!!!" The flaming bolt pushed him back a distance, enough for her to stand and grab her broken sword. The fire left a burnt mark on his breastplate, which he rubbed and looked up with an agitated frown. Raising the Sword of Light, he charged her. This time she was ready.

"**Fi-re ball!!!!**"

* * *

It was almost sunset when she surfaced. Dripping wet she waved up to Ferio and Mokona on the cliff with a clear crystal cluster the approximate shape and size of a sword. He grabbed his huge sword and jumped down with what could have been a perfect landing had Mokona not landed on his head a split second later and ruined his balance.

She was a bloody mess up close, cuts and bruises everywhere with a few deep wounds. Bloody, but victorious.

She fell asleep clutching the precious Mineral as he dressed her wounds. Then, traped by her weight on his shoulder and Mokona in his lap, he slept too; the three truly comfortable with each other for the first time in a week.

It wasn't to last too long, however, and they didn't see Presia coming across them. The next morning, Lina buckled on a brand new sword, Ferio got beaten and fried while Mokona set them off on a new course. The only high-spirited one seemed to be Mokona as they got onto the strange vehicle it conjured up, though. Lina especially, because she could not find any of the things she had "borrowed" from Presia, including the staff she won from Clef.

What was comforting was that she still had the chimera Mage's black holographic slate in her back pocket and her quest was already half way done. Well, at least two out of three ain't bad! 


	7. Dragonkyn

Slayers of Rayearth: Dragonkyn

© 1997 songshadow@hotmail.com

_*As I read back I am extremely extremely ashamed of myself now. This was a long time ago......*_  
The original intro read "most importantly, will the Guardians survive???"

**Slayers of Rayearth: Dragonkyn**

* * *

The Magic Knight is headed for the Temple of Waters. Zagato inspected his chief minions and picked one paticularly eager face. **Ascot. Go rid us of that pesky girl.** The young face lit up immediately.

"Ha... Hai!"

* * *

"Lina!" The armoured man whined after his skipping companion. "Quit fooling around! You're supposed to be claiming the Guardian Celes!"

"Oh Ferrio, shut up! You're starting to sound like a woman!" The little sorceress replied cheerfully and resumed her enthusiastic soft chant of "treasure, treasure".

"Do not!" He protested, turning strawberry red. "And what makes you so sure there's treasure to be had here, anyway?"

She whistled. "You told me Celes is a dragon, which means he'd have a horde."

"And what if he doesn't like you stealing his horde?" He yelled, waving his arms wildly about. "He'd have us for lunch, that's what!"

"No he won't," Lina replied with the smug smile that was her mark of confidence. He screamed a strangled cry of frustration. A part of him was horrified that he was doing all that. _I'm sacrificing all my grace and dignity staying with her!_ He grumbled to himself. _Emeraulde and Clef had better appreciate this! A LOT!!!_

In the diluted, rippling shadows, a good shudder generated several Tsunamis on the surface. The ancient blue dragon braced himself and reflected that maybe it was about time he retired.

* * *

"Are you absolutely sure about this?" The sharp, blood-shot glare Clef gave her was enough to freeze burning lava. Presia slid further down her chair. "Well, she's _still_ the Messiah," She managed a last feeble protest before looking uncomfortably away to the bundle leaning in the corner.

"This **Messiah** is going to ruin us." He rasped venomously and drank from a mug. Presia stole a worried glance. Sunken cheeks, blood-shot eyes, dull grey hue and shaking hands, Clef looked like he was going through hell and worse. Which indeed, he was. It had been nearly a week since he last touched coffee and withdrawal was not something to take lightly.

The mug left pale brown rings on the yellowing parchment, which he disregarded. The condition of the ancient map of Cephiro was the last thing on his mind right now; assuming that it ever was on his mind in the first place. A thin, frail man huddled up outside the back door, but seeing It's just the Royal Archivist mourning over the fate of the books and maps Clef borrowed, we can ignore him.

Clef spared a moment to frown at the mug. The tea was disgustingly weak and did nothing towards easing his pain. "We have to get to the Temple of Water. Get us a fast transport, Presia."

"I know your previous two sprites are gone, but why don't you summon more?"

He met her eyes levelly. "I can't."

"Why?" She was surprised. Summoning was a mere palor trick for someone of Clef's power and expertise.

"They won't answer my calls anymore because of what happened to the other two."

"What?" She had never heard of sprites refusing to answer Clef's call!

"She ate them."

"Oh."

* * *

Lina bounced into the main Hall and stopped short, causing Ferrio to almost trip over her. In an infinitely good mood, she smiled at the small blonde shadow in front of the sacrificial alter. "Hello,"

"Greetings, soon-to-be-ex-Messiah." It stepped into the light wearing green and cream robes. Long golden hair, childish, feminine face and a lovely pale complexion most girls would kill for, Ascot bore the unholy resemblance to Feria as Ferrio did to Gourry.

Lina was a little taken aback: she had expected Amelia. Then she saw the ancient mural of a majestic blue dragon covering the wall behind the alter. "Dragons. Of course." She muttered sarcasticly, having lost some of her cheer to the fact that this "Feria" was bent on killing her as well.

"Zagato-_sama_ sent me. My name is Ascot." Ascot searched under the robes and came up with a menacing mace in hand. Ferrio couldn't help but grin ear to ear at the stance the kid put up.

"That's not the way to hold a mace, little missy," He stepped around Lina to offer the sweet-looking creature his help. _She's cute,_ He thought. _VERY cute._ Ascot glared.

"Don't call me that!" The scream could have shattered glass if there was any around. Ferrio decided that he liked her even better when she's angry. A intense, fiery glow spread to Ascot's entire form, masking the transformation from pretty humanoid to golden dragon. Ferrio lost his balance in surprise and stumbled backwards. The rampant dragon gave a wild scream of rage, scorched the alter with a warning burst of dragonfire and dipped its head down to stare Ferrio in the eye. "Never. Call. Me. Missy." It hissed, punctuating every word for emphasis. "I. Am. A. Guy!"

From where she stood, Lina had a pretty clear picture of everything. "He's right, you know." She said finally, a little upset that Ferrio was getting all the attention, especially since _she_ was supposed to be the target. A large and extremely explosive fireball hit Ascot in the side. Well, maybe slightly more than "a little". Razor-sharp icicles thunderstormed on his golden and somehow rather tender hide.

(Alright, I take that all back. It wasn't "a little upset" or even "slightly more", Lina was **EXTREMELY** upset. ^^;)

The blonde swordsman dropped his jaw like a landed fish. Ascot lashed his tail out at Lina, who slashed at it ruthlessly with her new sword. Having seen how terrifyingly clumsy she was with it through the DarkAqua Mirror back at Zagato's, he quickly brought his tail back. In the moment of fragile balance when he hugged his precious tail to him, Lina hit Ascot with another full-scaled fireball, slamming him up against the murals. Then, it happened.

I AM CELES GUARDIAN OF THIS TEMPLE OF WATERS

No voice spoke, no lips moved; the words were suddenly just _there_, in all their minds. The blue dragon decorating the wall a moment ago moved. It was thrice the size of Ascot and blue rainbows ran across its scales when it dipped its majestic head out of the flat picture. Lina took a step forward to meet the first of the Mashins.

I RECOGNISE AND I CHOOSE YOU

A tingle of excitement ran up Lina's spine as she came closer to the God-like being, and stopped dead in its tracks. Celes swirvled around with eyes, or what passed for them, only for Ascot.

I CHOOSE YOU ASCOT OF THE DRAGONKYN YOU ARE NOW THE GUARDIAN OF THIS TEMPLE PERFORM YOUR DUTIES WELL SUCCESSOR

A flash of light wiped the mural from the wall put a permanent blue tinge in Ascot's scales. Ascot changed back into human form and found that the blue stayed in his long golden hair as well.

"Oh, I'm ruined!" He cried when he realised there was no way he could get it out. "My beautiful, beautiful hair! My tail! My scales! Oh I'm ruined!"

"It's okay," Ferrio whispered comfortingly, coming out of his stupor. "Guy or girl, blue streaks or no, I like you anyway." Lina fell flat on her face. Ascot's fists trembled. Ferrio knelt before the new Guardian and put a hand on Ascot's arm. "Your body betray your emotions, fair one, don't deny your excitement and admiration for me any longer! I..."

"Proposterous!!!" Ascot screamed. "I am NOT like you, you PERVERT!!!" And sent Ferrio rocketing back down the long hallway with a heavy Right Hook Punch. Lina proped herself up with a embarassed laugh for want of something to say. _This is crazy!_ She thought.

"Messiah-_dono_! Teacher!" The dragon-boy suddenly turned and clasped her hands with big, round, shining bambi eyes. "Teach me your magic!"

Lina sweatdroped. "_Are are_..." It was beginning to dawn on her that this Quest wasn't going to be any ordinary Let's-Save-A-World one. 


	8. Enslaving the Wind

Slayers of Rayearth: Enslaving the Wind

© 1997 songshadow@hotmail.com

_*As I read back I am extremely extremely ashamed of myself now. This was a long time ago......*_  
The original intro read "most importantly, will the Guardians survive???"

**Slayers of Rayearth: Enslaving the Wind**

* * *

Caldina did some stretches and stifled a yawn. The gentle breeze was making her sleepy, but she had to keep awake for the interferers' arrival. It wasn't a job she paticularly favoured, but it was what she was being paid for.

WE HAVE COMPANY, MAJESTY. The jade green bird stopped fanning, the note of fear still strong in its contemptuous sarcasm. MAY I DEPART NOW?

The woman smiled coyly. For a moment Windam thought she might consent. "No. Not until I say so."

The Mashin swore silently out of fustration. WELL, It thought. AT LEAST THAT LINA CHARACTER WON'T BE GETTING HER HAND'S ON ME WHILE CALDINA'S HERE. Little did Windam realise the extent of its mistake.

* * *

_Three travellers were on their way up to the Temple of Winds. A beautiful magician of the Dragonkyn, a master swordsman of Cephiro and the OtherWorlder of which the secret Ballad sang. Four, if you would count the creamy hyperbolic cross between a rabbit and a gummy-bear hopping just out of the OtherWorlder's hungry grasp._

"This is terrible! I'm disfigured for life!" The mage whined in a little boy's voice, thumbing the ill-fated tresses. Where blue taints had appeared after his succession as the Guardian Mashin of the Temple of Waters now sport green splotches the colour of polluted equatorial seas. "Oh, I knew I shouldn't have tried to dye it back!"

"It's okay, 'heart, Scotty dear, I love you anyway." The blonde swordsman known as Ferrio fingered a lock of the hair in a lover-like fashion.

"GYYAAAAAAA!!!!!!" Ascot screamed. "Take your paws off me, you pervert!" He screeched, outline blurring into that of a formidably sized dragon and blasted the armoured man with a burst of dragonfyre. The Messiah was absorbed with stalking the fourth member of their company all throughout the exchange and pounced on the creature during the distraction.

Zagato sighed and turned away from the DarkAqua Mirror. Things were nowhere as desirable as planned, which was bad; Ascot became the Mashin Guardian of the Temple of Waters then turned traitor in the face of the redheaded witch's magic, which was worse. The situation, not her magic. Since her defeat of Clef the Royal Mage, he had started developing a grudging respect for the spirited young sorceress. Were she not the enemy he would have loved to meet her personally!

The Princess Emeraulde stirred in her sleep in the magical bubble he had created. It was better for her this way. Much, much more secure and guardable. Zagato looked down at her sweet features with an expression that was almost regretful. He didn't like keepimg her prisoner any more than Clef did. For one thing, she was always telling visitors embarassing stories about his youth.

"Stop right there! You shall taste the bitter fruits of your actions!" Zagato turned and left his dark-haired Princess to her glorious dreams. An overblown sense of Justice was fine enough on its own, but some people just weren't cut out for it.

**I only wish I had the heart to tell her that.**

* * *

"Can't this thing go any faster?"  
"I'm sorry, Clef, this is the best I can manage on such short notice." Presia did seem extremely apologetic, although that was lost on Clef.

Why couldn't they have taken a sprite, you ask. The reason was simple: they refuse to answer another call from Clef after Lina ate his last pair and Presia was no conjuror. It was natural insticnt, really, you can't blame any living-thing for being self-preserving, least of all Lina. Jaku niki kyou shoku. The strong devouring the weak, such is the way of Natural Selection.

"Well? Why have we stopped? You know the urgency of our business!" He exploded yet again. He threw his weight about a lot over the past few days, as Presia noted and attributed to caffine withdrawal.

"We're here, Clef." She sighed patiently. He mumbled something under his breath and pushed past her.

"Cursed! We're too late!" He cried, inspecting the vacant wall that had up to recently housed the Guardian Mashin of the Temple. "The Temple of Winds, then. That's where she'll strike next."

"May I venture a suggestion?" He glared at her, but listened. "We'll probably be too late since they've gained a headstart. Why don't we intercept them at the Temple of Fires, instead?"

* * *

The sounds of squabbling alerted Caldina long before their actual arrival. She couldn't resist a laugh as she pieced together the source of their arguement. That same howling laugh greeted the trio as they entered the chamber, sending a familiar chill up Lina's spine. _Naga!_ She'd know that laugh anywhere. _Except maybe here._ So she studied the woman and waited.

It sure looked like Naga, alright. As usual, it was more interesting to note what she didn't have on than what she actually did. Tall, buxom, with sexy legs to die for, she was her typical picture of a demon temptress. The only thing Lina didn't remember was the dark healthy tan.

"Who are you?" Ferrio asked, not bothering to hide his hostility as Ascot jumped into her embrace.

"Ascot! Hey kid, what happened to your hair?" She ignored him, much to the swordsman's annoyance. Lina was busy investigating the large avian shadow hiding behind a pillar. Ascot whined about how he tried to dye the blue in his hair back to blonde but ended up with teal instead, earning a word of sympathy from his friend.

"Look, I don't care who you are, but we're here to claim Windam the Mashin so if you'll excuse us." He glowered a challenge and started to haul his love away with him. Caldina accepted the challenge and parried his sword with, of all things, a dance.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Ferrio." She laughed triumphantly as Ascot cheered her on. "You see, Windam is my slave; as will you be."

"Ascot will never permit that!" He cried indignantly. "Smite her down, love, give her a taste of your dragonfyre!"

"Are you kidding?" Ascot peered down at his admirer, then back at his friend. "I don't know what you see in him, Cal, but if you want him, he's yours!"

An undignified squawk was all the warning before the six-winged Mashin called Windam broke out from the back, flattening Ferrio and cowered behind Caldina, followed close by Lina. It quivered.

SAVE ME, CALDINA, ASCOT!

Ascot blinked in response to the words that have appeared in his mind out of nowhere. "How did you know my name?"

YOU ARE THE NEW MASHIN IN PLACE OF CELES. WE ALL KNEW THE MOMENT YOU WERE NAMED. NOW, PROTECT ME FROM THIS WOMAN!

"Lina?" Ascot asked in mild confusion. "But Windam, she _is_ the Saviour. She can't possibly want to hurt you!"

THE MESSIAH? HER?! THAT CAN'T BE RIGHT! SHE'S A FIEND! A DEMON! EQUAL TO CALDINA HERSELF!

The thoughtful look on Caldina's face said "I think I'm starting to like her already". Ascot hoped so. He would love to have Caldina join them on this expedition. "Don't be stupid," He spoke to the Mashin as an equal. "What could she have possibly done to you?" Lina played an almost perfect picture of innoncence. What could she have possibly done to the shaking Guardian?

DEMONFIRE, ASCOT, SHE TRIED TO **EAT** ME!!!

"Oh." He managed to sound somewhat embarassed, remembering how she tried to barbeque Mokona just a while ago.

"Quiet, you old bird. She's got the right idea there. I like it." Caldina twirled a simple introductory dance with a sparkle of witchlights. "I am Caldina the White Serpent, Dancer, Charmer and a Mage of some power."

"Glad to meet you," Lina took the offered hand. She was skeptical about Caldina as she was of the twin in her own homeworld, but in either place it was unwise to be enemies with her. "Lina Inverse, genius sorceress for hire, currently the Legendary figure of some sort around here."

"In celebration of our friendship, I offer you a trade."

Lina gave the bird another hungry look. "Personally, I'd rather eat that." She grinned good naturedly. "What kind of trade?"

"You wanted Windam, right? I offer him in return for Ferrio." She snapped a leash to the ebony collar around Windam's slendar neck and held the other end up to Lina.

Lina prodded the man into semi-consciousness. "I really don't see what you might want with him," The redhead frowned. "I mean, he's vain and self-important, gluttony and likes young boys," Ascot reddened at this referance, much to the two women's amusement, "And all, but yeah, you can keep him."

"And I'd like to join you."

Ascot nodded enthusiasticly. She thought it over quickly. She's been on the road with Naga before, it can't be too bad, she decided. "The more the merrier!" She declared, taking the leash.

Ferrio had, by this time, gathered enough of his wits to register what was being said in horror. A cry rose in his throat but Windam beat him to it.

NOOOO!!! HOW CAN YOU DO THIS, CALDINA? I'D RATHER BE YOUR SLAVE! OHPLEASEOHPLEASEOHPLEASE YOU CAN'T TRADE ME OFF TO HER!

"I am a **MAN**! You can't trade me off like so many dumb sheep!"

"Just watch me." Lina and Caldina said in unison, then looked wonderingly at each other. _Well, what do you know!_ Lina thought as a wide grin broke over her face mirroring Caldina's. She had never expected to find a sisterly spirit in Naga, much less in her Cephiro twin!

Things just get stranger and stranger. 


	9. Countdown to Prom

Slayers of Rayearth: Countdown to Prom

© 1997 songshadow@hotmail.com

_*As I read back I am extremely extremely ashamed of myself now. This was a long time ago......*_  
Almost there....

**Slayers of Rayearth: Countdown to Prom**

* * *

"Fireball!"

The smoke and dust settled, pulling into focus Ascot with palm outstretched, wide-eyed with a touch of fear and embarassment. Lina and Caldina straightened from their crouch dusting themselves off. Caldina started regretting the minimal clothing she wore in the discomfort of grimmy, gritty skin.

"Maybe it would be better if you aim outside." Lina forced a smile.

"Maybe you should stick to _breathing_ fire." Caldina grumbled. "I'm turning into a grandmother!" There was so much dust in her black hair that it appeared grey.

"Practice makes perfect, I always say. Just look at me." Ferrio encouraged. "Now, can someone give me a hand here?" A lot of magically provoked accidents seemed to be happening to Ferrio since Lina started teaching Ascot some bits and pieces of destructive elemental magics about an hour or two ago. He had yet to figure out that Ascot was using him for target practice.

His plea went generally ignored until Windam reached over the edge of the transport and offered a wingtip.

WE MUST WORK TOGETHER, It told Ferrio in a whisper. ONLY THEN CAN WE ESCAPE THIS HELLISH COMPANY!

Ferrio gave the Mashin a funny look. "Escape? From my love? What for?" Abruptly his manner changed and Ferrio drew his sword against Windam. "You! You plot to have me out of the way so you can steal Ascot from me! Never, villian, never! I shall not permit it!"

HEY, WAIT! It took all of Windam to dodge the swordsman and it still would have ended up as sashimi had Ferrio not ripped Lina's mantle and gotten himself one of her level-a-building fireballs just then. Windam groaned. This was going to be a long trip.

* * *

_She was bored out of her skull and can't help but feel she should be out there doing something about Cephiro's crisis instead of hanging around letting everyone else do all the work. _And have all the fun!__

"It's not fair!" She whined to no-one in paticular. From what Zagato wouldn't tell her, Ascot and Caldina have been captured by the enemy and Rafus sent to intercept them. The fortress was empty except for Zagato and herself. Emeraulde kicked the sides of her bubble fretfully. "I want to fight too!"

**It's too dangerous, Princess. I cannot allow you to.**

"But why?" She whined at her captor. "You let the others go!"

**The others are not the Pillar of Cephiro. Now please stop fidgeting. You're weakening the bubble.**

"Oh." She backed off the kicking and hammering. "Gomen, To-chan." She sat down looking properly ashamed.

**How many times must we go through this, Emeraulde?** He sighed with strained patience. **Don't call me To-chan.**

"Hai, To-chan." She replied unhappily.

* * *

"Alright, here's how we'll do it: Windam, you and Caldina get Rayearth from the front, then Ferrio and I will go from the rear and Ascot drop the net when we've lured it out. Okay?"

"Works for me, Lina!"

BUT CALDINA-SAMA... ... A look silenced the Mashin.

"It's workable, Lina-sama, but are you sure this is necessary?"

"Lina! That's not the way to claim a Mashin! You're supposed to use the sword!" Ferrio protested between getting rid of his new collar and failing.

"What, this old thing?" She hefted the sword that was supposedly made of the mineral she had retrieved from the Lengendary Pool and left in scabbard up to now. It was a tad tacky for Lina's taste and gleamed like a magic sword (which was a sure way to tell it wasn't for any expieranced adventurer) but somehow nagged suspiciously at Lina for being of pot-metal quality.

Granted Lina wasn't much with swords, but after a lifetime of buckling on a good one and knowing people good with them, anyone can at least tell an extremely bad sword from a good one.

"But how?" She demanded. "You wouldn't let me hurt these Mashins!"

That got Ferrio stomped. He only knew the Messiah was supposed to use the sword made from the Mineral to claim the Mashin, except no-one has ever told him how. Which also meant that neither of the Mashins they had with them have been claimed. Which isn't possible because you're only suppose to be able to enlist their help if you claim them and they recognise you. His head spun. _It seems I'm missing something here..._

It seems that he was missing a lot of things lately.

* * *

The plan worked fine, except for one minor setback: what they caught did not quite fit Rayearth's description.

He was an average looking man dressed in purple and black priestly robes and had his hair cut below his ears like a naive school girl and smiling enigmaticly. What he was _supposed_ to be was big and red with a curved ivory horn and tongues of fire licking about all over the place and putting up a good fight with lots of snarling and gashing. Which can only lead to the conclussion that they have caught the wrong guy.

"Ah, about time you turned up." He said. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Rafus and I have come to offer you this, as a token."

Lina poked the furry orange ball suspiciously.

"It's the Mashin Guardian of the Temple of Flames." Rafus explained as the ball uncurled to reveal a beast with a lion's mane and curved ivory horn. It was about the size of a puppy.

"THAT'S Rayearth?!"

The creature blinked, yawned and curled back into an uninterested ball.

"Well? Are you taking it or not? And Zagato's fortress is over there, by the way."

Lina didn't need a second prompting. The moment Rayearth was in her hands, Rafus vanished in a puff of purple smoke. That solved their final Mashin problem rather neatly.

"Now, how do we pentrate Zagato's fortress?" Ferrio looked all out of sorts. The Fortress was the one thing about this whole quest that he dreaded the most. No one against Zagato had yet been able to get within 2 miles of the place and survive. It was one of those things that looked impossible and stayed impossible.

"How do you penetrate something that isn't there?" Lina grinned cryptically. Caldina returned the smile. Ascot was cuddling Rayearth under the stoned Windam.

"Huh? What do you mean 'not there'?! It's the only building for miles around! How can it be 'not there'?!!!!"

But Lina refused to say, so I guess we'll just all have to see... ...

* * *

Darkness.  
Something shifted.  
The snap-hiss of a match being struck.

"I can't believe this! Where are we?" The shorter demanded. The small ring of light highlighted the unnatural contours of his features, allowing him to almost blend in with the surrounding rocks.  
"How in the world would I know! You're at home here, stonehead, you tell me!" His companion snapped back. Even long-term secret admirers have an end to their patience.  
"I'm only one-third rock! If you hadn't taken that wrong turn...!"  
"If you hadn't insist that it was a shortcut...!"  
"If you hadn't..."

The match burnt out.  
And there wasn't anymore.

"What do you mean there aren't anymore?!"  
"What are you yelling at me for! You're a mage, so conjure up a witchlight or something!"  
"I can't!"  
"What do you mean you can't!"  
"I can't see the spell!" 


	10. Final Waltz

Slayers of Rayearth: Final Waltz

© 1997 songshadow@hotmail.com

_*As I read back I am extremely extremely ashamed of myself now. This was a long time ago......*_  
There were worse. Honest.

**Slayers of Rayearth: Final Waltz**

* * *

Zagato's Fortress was best described as a deserted floating city. It was sheer black, which says a lot about his common sense. Everyone knows that black absorbs heat and should therefore be avoided on any type of buildings, especially floating cities.

That aside, it was indeed as magnificient and forboding as the next evil fortress. High glassy walls impossible to scale, the latest in laser weaponery, everything and anything you can imagine, all in the same glossy shade of black. Looks like Zagato spent his entire fortune on it. And oh, what a pity!

A series of silent explosions rocked the great empty city. Orange and red circles expand outwards from the base, putting together a spectacular display of fire and light. Lina Inverse, ever the showman. Show_girl_. But it ain't over 'til the fat lady screams!

As the fortress dipped dangerously to the right and sank to her knees figuratively, triggering off yet more chains of destruction, a spine-chilling, goose-pimpling laughter echoed across the crumbling towers. Dramatic Caldina the White Serpent who refuses to let Lina take all the credit joins her new friend on the knoll, cloak flapping out majesticly behind her. They made an impressive picture silhouetted against the artificial sunset, fresh rubble and settling dust.

A little to the west, a jade green six-winged roc played with an orange horned and lion-maned puppy and milk white Gummybear-rabbit cross. A blonde Swordsman stretched his neck a mile long searching with his eyes for someone among the debris. A tiny whimper of despair started in his throat, but whether it was over what Lina and Caldina did to the impregnable fortress or something else leaves to be verified.

A dragon landed before the two girls. His head drooped tiredly, but the eyes were fevered, bright with excitement.

"Great job, kid!" Caldina slapped his greenish gold neck.

"Not ba..."

"Ascot!" Lina didn't get to finish her compliment as Ferrio had charged for them the moment he spotted the dragonokyn landing and now trampled all over her in order to get closer to his beloved. "You had me all worried!"

It was a very stupid thing to do, as he soon found out.

* * *

_ Zagato didn't know what hit them, but he surely knew who. He had thought she would find some way to the gate and demand entrance, or even a duel or something. He had imagined a thousand scenarios for their showdown, but not once in any of those thousand daydreams did she _drop in_ on the fortress and sabotage the anti-gravity spell. It just wasn't done!_

But then it started dawning on him that nothing Lina had done so far was exactly 'done' until she came along. He crawled out of the pile of broken marble.

**Oh my fortress.** He groaned. Maybe his insurance company hasn't gone out of business yet. It would be terrible if it did.

**Princess?** A cold fear clutched his heart. What if the bubble didn't hold out? What if they find her? What if... ..._ A note of desperation creeped into his passive voice. **Emeraulde!** "Emeraulde! Where are you!"_

* * *

Lina was just finishing beating Ferrio to a pulp, having learnt from Caldina how much more gratifying it was dealing solid physical contact than merely _seeing_ your fireballs fry him.

"Un~hand him, villianess! I will not allow you to terrorise these good citizens any longer! In place of Cephiro, I, Sailor Cephiro, shall punish you!"

All eyes turned to the source of the voice. Rumpled, dirty, masked and dress torn in several places, the little girl stood on a piece of what used to be Zagato's fortress striking a tasteless pose with what she considered a massive amount of maturity.

"Eh?"

"Huh?"

"Good citizen? Me? Ohohohoho!"

FINALLY! THE CALVARY!

"F'nk Mmof! Ah mif emmif'te mmfika adenfon!" This was, in fact, Ferrio trying to say "Thank God! I need immediate medical attention!" through a bloodied nose, broken lip and a couple of missing front teeth.

"Whose kid is this?" Caldina shrugged to the question and dug a toe into Ferrio's side. Ascot turned back to human form and gave his unwanted admirer a full-hearted kick.

"Can't say I know."

"Ascot? Caldina?" A bright smile of recognition. The girl bounded off her perch and landed flat on her face. Zagato's two ex-followers exchanged Do-You-Know-This-Baka and No-I-Don't-Do-You looks.

"It's me, guys! Don't you recognise me?" She got back on her feet exclaiming, apparently needing someone to state the obvious.

"No."

**Princess. You should not be troubling yourself with this... trivialty.** The villian appears and lifted the girl off her feet.

"Fadapho!" Ferrio tried again to reach for his sword and again Lina stepped down hard on his hand. Everyone else tensed.

**Ah, I see I am known.** He looked highly amused as an adult would cruelly be by children's all-out attempts to prove themselves. **Allow me to introduce the Princess Emeraulde, Pillar of Cephiro.**

"Zagato! You're not supposed to reveal my secret identity! I am Sailor Cephiro! Protector of the Good and Upholder of Justice!"

"That's not her, she sounds... less squeaky!" Ascot protested. Caldina frowned. Lina readied a fireball. Zagato sighed and waved a hand. A bubble appeared around the girl as she continued to protest. It buffled her voice to a more comfortable decibel. Lina toasted Ferrio with the fireball instead.

"Eh, what was all that about?"

**Too much Sailor Moon.** Zagato sighed. **Should never have bought her that T.V.** Lina and Co. (minus Ferrio) nodded sympatheticly despite the fact they had no idea what a 'T.V.' was.

**There is no way I can bring her safely into public in this state,** He lamented, breaking down. "There's too much at stake! Nobody can keep faith with a clumsy kid who fancies herself a superhero! And nobody hesitates to attack a nation with a ruler like her! Politcs, you know how it is..." He sobbed uncontrolably. Caldina offered a hanky. One wonders where she keeps it in that scanty outfit of hers.

THERE THERE, OLD CHUM. Windam patted him on the back. I UNDERSTAND. Even Mokona and Rayearth looked concerned. Zagato took a shuddering breath.

"So that's why I decided to call the Magic Knights, to come and finish it so Cephiro can have a fresh start. Then you came along, Lina, and messed up the spell and got caught in it instead then became the Messiah and all, we're doomed, I tell you, doomed!"

"Gomen." Lina looked chagrined. So she _was_ aware that she wasn't going by the books. "Is there anything I can do to make up for it? What is it that I'm supposed to do anyway?"

Zagato had taken off his impressive mantle and headdress during the course of his lamentation and now looked to Lina no more than a teen around her age, maybe even younger, and wasn't exactly bad looking either. He looked up at her, surprised. "You don't know? The mission of the Magic Knights or Messiahs is to slay the Pillar."

"WHAT??? You never told me that, To-chan!"

**_You_ didn't pay attention during history class. Snooze and lose, Emeraulde.**

"To-chan?" Lina grinned at the nickname. Caldina howled with laughter. Zagato blushed. Ascot peered into the bubble and blushed too, for a different reason. Somehow the plain princess made his heart race and cheeks boil. There was something very special about her that made him want to do the craziest things. Like think someone beautiful besides himself.

Suddenly, he knew what he must do. Drawing a hairpin from his long, teal-stained gold hair, Ascot burst the bubble, caught the Princess in his arms, transformed and fled. Everyone else was too stunned to do anything, including the Princess. When she realised what was happening, though, Emeraulde went into a swoon. It's only proper when being rescued.

"Now, who would have thought..." Caldina nodded knowingly behind them.

"Afkod! Komm faak!" (Translaton: "Ascot! Come back!")

"Well, that's one way of doing it." Zagato blinked, picking up the que to ignore Ferrio from the girls.

OH NO! NOW WHAT DO WE DO? Windam whined between Mokona and Rayearth running circles around him. Lina had an evil hungry look that she shared with Caldina.

"For starters, we can _finally_ see what that fluffball tastes like." Out came fork and knife and napkin, from where only Lina knew. "Then," She smiled warmly at Zagato. "You can teach me all about this place."

Zagato blushed and started a reply, but she was already gone, chasing Mokona and Caldina across the empty hillscape. "Amazing, isn't she?" He picked up the yawning Rayearth and smiled a genuine, glad smile from the bottom of his heart, Windam circling overhead and sqwaking undignifiedly after them.

* * *

_He must've been four or five when they sold him to his lordship as a serving boy. He didn't hate them, there was just too many mouths to feed and in his new place, at least, he had plenty to eat and a warm bed._

That wasn't all he got from his master. Having discovered his talent for figuring and eloquence, his lordship gave him the finest education a boy could hope for and a place in Court besides. At age eleven he was single-handedly juggling Internal State Affairs and by thirteen, External as well. He was a genius, a prodigy, but he was also never a child or teen. Ninteen years old and never seen a party. A real, high-strung, teen-affair party.

Then suddenly, it all snapped back and hit him smack in the face, the whole full pack of Life itself. Plus a special bonus of Lina Inverse. It would be a welcome change.

It already was. Lina blocked out the sun with her own radience and took the blade of grass from between Zagato's teeth.

"What does this do?" She sketched the rune in his face. Quickly he slammed up a shield around the both of them as the lingering sign exploded. "Oh."

"Why don't you tell me what you want to know? Something to make your way home?" It wasn't good for the heart living each day in fear that she might blow them to the eighteenth hell and back without realizing what she was doing.

"Everything! I want to know everything there is to know about Magic in Cephiro that you can teach me, then learn some more."

And it wasn't good for the heart to melt repeatedly each day.

She flopped herself down on the grass next to him, caught in her passion for magic. "There's so much here! It could take a lifetime to learn!"

**I'm sure you'll manage in less. You've already covered more than what would usually take a year to learn in the past two months.** He pointed out matter-of-factly, hiding a trecherous trace of emotion. It was becoming increasingly hard to stop his mind from wandering off into daydreams featuring, surprise, Lina; especially when they're just chatting, like now.

She supported herself on one hand to look down at him. "You really think so?"

For some reason over the days, his opinion had grown more and more important to her. Compliments especially thrilled her, and it wasn't all because he always means them thrice-fold. At first she was confused, but now she was sure of what it was. And the more distant he became at times, such as now, the surer she was of what she wants to do. Of what she must do.

**I know so.** She would leave Cephiro once she's discovered there's nothing more to learn and he would never see her again, he knew. But he could not begrudge her the truth.

"Then I'm staying a while." Lina looked into the distance where Caldina was teaching Ferrio, Windam and Rayearth to do circus acts. _A while, then forever._ Smiling shyly at Zagato, she wondered how he ever thought she didn't notice his secret affections and why he never guessed hers. It was painfully obvious, according to Caldina.

"Besides, _shinaida_," And leaned down to kiss him on his pale, tensed lips. "This _is_ my home." 


End file.
